The dark past of match-fixing, the embarrassing World Cup at home and the battered team from every side was raised by this 22-year-old young captain and made the most dangerous team.
The early 2000s did not go well for South African Cricket. The match-fixing scandal of legendary captain Hansie Cronje brought the entire country into disrepute. Fans had started losing their faith in this game. Then in 2003, the team had an embarrassing performance in the World Cup 2003 on their own land and was eliminated from the group stage. In such a situation, the popularity of cricket in South Africa was at its lowest level. In these circumstances, the African Cricket Board gave the command of the team to 22-year-old young batsman Graeme Smith, which shocked the entire cricket fraternity. This Smith is the most successful captain in cricket history for the last 16 years.
Smith, who held the status of ‘legend’ in South African cricket, was born on this day in 1981. Born in Johannesburg, Smith attended the same King Edward-II school from which many big cricketers and prominent African players had emerged. Smith also emerged as one of them. Smith, tall, made his debut at the age of just 21 in 2002, but within a year, he was given the most difficult responsibility.
South Africa’s youngest captain
Smith saw his team ‘choke’ against India in the semi-finals in the 2002 Champions Trophy. Yuvraj Singh took a brilliant catch of Smith in that match. Then a year later, in the World Cup held at his home, he saw the team going into the trough. In such a situation, despite the presence of experienced players like Jack Kallis, Mark Boucher, Lance Klusner and Herschelle Gibbs, when 22-year-old Smith was given the command of the team, it did not go well with African cricket and the decision came here The picture and fate of the entire team changed. Smith is the youngest captain in South Africa cricket history.
Great start with captaincy and batting, all doubts removed
Smith had a great start to his Test career and was sharp as a captain. Smith had scored 4 centuries including 3 double centuries in his first 12 Tests. Out of these, two consecutive double centuries were against England at Edgbaston and Lord’s. The great thing was that this was only the second and third Test of Smith as captain. This was only the second series of Smith.
South Africa had not won a series in England since 1965, but Smith came close to this charisma. However, success was not achieved, but 2-2 series was definitely drawn. Smith scored more than 700 runs in this series and silenced those who saw his captaincy in the eyes of doubt.
The biggest chase in ODI history
From here, the dominance of Smith’s captaincy in the cricket world started returning. Australia was still the strongest team at that time, but the call of the African team had started. A great proof of this was the historic one-day match of Johannesburg in March 2006. Australia scored 434 runs in 50 overs. This was the first time in ODI cricket, when the figure of 400 was punched. The defeat was certain, but Smith himself took the front and laid the foundation by scoring 90 runs in just 55 balls. South Africa won the match by stunning 438 runs to the world.
South Africa cricket’s biggest win in 2008
The 2008–09 season was the most spectacular year of Smith’s captaincy. This season, he gave African cricket the most memorable win. Smith, who came close to creating history in England in 2003, finally did it in 2008. After 43 years of waiting, South Africa beat England for the first time in their home Test 2–1.
Smith did not stop here and hunted the next world champion Australia. Australia was the strongest team of that period, but Smith was a captain with toughness, insolence and iron. First, with the help of centuries from Smith and AB de Villiers, his team achieved the target of 414 runs in the Perth field. Then after winning the Boxing Day Test, for the first time, the Australians made the series 2–1 on the ground.
No.1 Test team, most successful team abroad
Under the captaincy of Smith, South Africa made major achievements, especially in Test cricket. The most special in this was to be the number 1 ranked team in Test cricket. Not only this, between 2006 and 2015-16, the South African team did not lose a single Test series on foreign soil. In 2014, the captaincy was on Smith’s shoulders.
Most successful captain, most brash batsman
Smith holds the record for captaincy in most matches in Test cricket. Smith captained 109 Test matches (108 South Africa, 1 ICC XI) in his career, winning 53 of them. This is also a record in you. Similarly, as the captain, the record of maximum 8659 runs is also in his name. However, like the rest of the captains of South Africa, he could not open his account in ICC tournaments.
Smith played 345 matches in his international career, in which he got more than 17 thousand runs, 37 centuries and 90 half-centuries. Of these, he scored more than 9 thousand runs and 27 centuries in Test cricket. At the same time, Smith scored more than 24 thousand runs and 52 centuries in his entire career. In this way, Smith is one of the greatest cricketers of South African cricket because of his batting, not only with his excellent captaincy.
